Mind Games
"Mind Games" is the tenth episode of the second season of . It depicts Terry's first encounter with people wielding psychic capabilities. After saving a supposed family from a car accident, Terry starts receiving strange messages from the family's daughter. He soon learns that she's contacting him telepathically and that she's been kidnapped by a group called "The Brain Trust". Now Terry must fight to save the child from super-powered individuals. Plot It's a dark and stormy night over Gotham and a supposed small family flies through the city in their car. Suddenly, lightning strikes the car and they lose control. Fortunately, Batman is nearby and manages to save them. The family is unharmed but the young daughter stares at Batman with a sad, disturbing look. makes contact with Terry.]] The next day Terry goes to school, and during a test he sees the girl he saved arrive in the class. She asks him to help her because she "doesn't want to go". However, no one else seems to notice her. Terry goes to tell Bruce about her. While Bruce contemplates the information, Ace suddenly notices something is wrong and Terry sees the girl again. Bruce instructs Terry to talk to the girl and he learns that her name is "Tamara" and when he asks where she is, she mentally places Terry into a hotel room with her "parents". Her supposed "father" notices she's calling someone and angrily approaches her. When Terry tries to stop him, however, he's intangible, due to being an illusion. Fortunately, Bruce is able to identify the place as Gotham Park Towers. Terry and Max go to the hotel and see the "mother" speaking to an Albino. Listening in on them Terry learns their hotel room and heads out to investigate as Batman. Finding no one inside, Batman searches around but only finds a small doll. Suddenly, the doll's head becomes Tamara's and she warns him of impending danger. Just then, the "father" arrives and starts attacking Batman with a show of incredible strength. Batman manages to hurl the man out the window and he falls several stories to the ground, but he's completely unharmed. Returning to Bruce, Terry looks at a series of pictures of children that have gone missing. Finally, he sees Tamara and learns the location of her true home. Going to investigate, Batman meets up with her real parents. They tell him that they sent Tamara to a special school for children with paranormal powers. However, when they called the school to inform them that Tamara forgot her favorite toy, they discovered that the school was a fake. The only other information they can give him is that they heard about something called the "Brain Trust". Batman goes to investigate the school and discovers that it is in fact a fake. Talking to Bruce, Batman learns that the Brain Trust is a secret society that uses paranormal people. While investigating, Terry discovers the same strange man that the woman was talking to and confronts him. However, the man levitates into the air and hits Terry with a psychic blast that effectively blinds and deafens him. Lost and confused by the psychic blast, Batman is pummeled by the man's cane, telekinetically controlled. However, Batman manages to overcome the man's power and defeats him. In spite of his victory, Batman learns nothing of Tamara's location and talks to her doll. Tamara speaks to him and says that she's in a boat, docked on Pier 7. With this information, Batman goes to rescue Tamara and sneaks onto the ship. The man and woman are upset that the Albino hasn't shown up and decide to leave right off. The woman tries to convince Tamara to join up with them but it's useless. All the same, she locks Tamara in her room and refuses to listen to her pleas to go home. Batman sneaks into Tamara's room, returns her toy, and learns that the woman's name is "Bombshell". The Invulnerable Man then confronts him. Batman manages to fight him off, but Bombshell attacks him with explosive blasts, inadvertently hitting the Invulnerable Man. Bombshell decides to go on herself but is distracted by a vision of Tamara's toy grown to gargantuan proportions, and she is stopped by Batman. The Invulnerable Man recovers and attacks Batman, but Tamara hits him with a psychic blast that blinds him and he too is rendered harmless. Later Terry returns to school and tells Max that Tamara and her family was placed into protective custody with better living conditions and doctors to help her with her powers. Max asks whether Tamara is okay now, and Terry says he's sure of it—looking into the sky, he sees a vision of Tamara, waving a happy goodbye as she fades away. Continuity * The Albino would later appear in the episode "Double Date", as the son of Steven Mandragora, Edgar. * The Brain Trust would resurface in episode "Ro's Gift". * Terry uses Dick Grayson's old tuxedo again since "Spellbound". Background information Home video releases * * Batman Beyond - The Complete Series (DVD) Production notes * The second time Bombshell hits Batman there's an explosion that is reused footage from the scene of episode "World's Finest, Part III" in which one Wayne/Lex T-7 blows up another droid. This also happens later when Bombshell accidentally hits Invulnerable Man. * Later, when Bombshell misses Batman and hits a stack of boxes, the ensuing explosion is reused footage from the scene of the episode "My Girl", in which Mr. Eelan blows a vat of hot lead off its support. Production inconsistencies * When Terry fights the Invulnerable Man as Batman, there is a sequence where he's punched and thrown through a red wall. The Invulnerable Man's fists can be seen as white and uncolored. Trivia * Although commonly believed, the concept of humans only being able to tap into 10% of their brains has long been proven to be untrue.See 10 Percent Myth * When Terry recites the names of the past presidents he stops with Bill Clinton, who was the current president at the time the show was made. * Among the pictures of missing children Terry views is a girl who closely resembles Annie, Clayface's "daughter". * Tamara is voiced by Mara Wilson, who as a child played the role of Roald Dahl's Matilda, a child prodigy who also develops psychic powers. * Tamara's toy, Pugley, bears a striking resemblance to a Teletubby. Cast Quotes References Category:A to Z Category:Batman Beyond episodes Category:Episodes directed by Butch Lukic